2025 SUMMER READING LIST
A special thank you to our 2025 NYC Summit speakers
who provided the below book recommendations:
The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma
Leadership expert Robin Sharma introduced The 5am Club over twenty years ago, promoting a morning routine designed to boost productivity, health, and inner peace in a complex world.
Afro Sheen by George E. Johnson Sr.
Afro Sheen is a timely, impassioned look at both an industry and cultural moment. Johnson’s impact is finally on full display, as he brilliantly highlights how having perseverance and a daring vision can create both change and a lasting legacy.
A Bright Shining Lie
by Neil Sheehan
This passionate, epic account of the Vietnam War centres on Lt Col John Paul Vann, whose story illuminates America's failures & disillusionment in SE Asia.
The Caesars Palace Coup
by Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap
In The Caesars Palace Coup, financial journalists Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap illuminate the brutal tactics of distressed debt mavens—vultures, as they are condemned—in the sale and purchase of even the biggest companies in the world with billions of dollars hanging in the balance.
Chip War
by Chris Miller
Economic historian Chris Miller traces how semiconductors shaped modern life and powered U.S. dominance in technology and military strength, helping win the Cold War. As China worked to catch up by linking chips to military goals, the U.S. responded.
Crying in H Mart
by Michelle Zauner
In this heartfelt story of family, food, and grief, Michelle Zauner shares her experiences growing up Asian American in Oregon, navigating her mother's high expectations, and bonding over meals during visits to Seoul—all with humor and depth beyond her musical talents.
Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese
An unforgettable journey into one man's remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.
Demon Copperhead
by Barbara Kingsolver
Demon Copperhead follows a boy born to a teenage mother in a trailer, armed only with sharp wit, good looks, and a will to survive. Told in his own raw voice, he endures foster care, addiction, love, and loss. Along the way, he confronts the neglect of rural lives in a culture obsessed with cities and superheroes.
Disarming the Narcissist
by Wendy T. Behary
This book will help you learn to meet your own needs while side-stepping unproductive power struggles and senseless arguments with someone who is at the center of his or her own universe.
Dream Count
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.
Elon Musk
by Walter Isaacson
This is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence.
Freedom at Midnight
by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins
This book is a poignant reminder of the defining moments of the end of the british raj, the independence of 400 million people, their division into india and the newly created pakistan.
The Fund
by Rob Copeland
This is a cautionary tale for anyone convinced that the ability to make lots of money has anything at all to do with unlocking the principles of human nature.
Give and Take
by Adam Grant
In Give and Take, Adam Grant, an award-winning researcher and Wharton’s highest-rated professor, examines the surprising forces that shape why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom.
The Godfather of Silicon Valley
by Gary Rivlin
Gary Rivlin tells the story of Ron Conway, Silicon Valley’s most prolific angel investor, offering a vivid look into the high-stakes world of early start-up financing. The Godfather of Silicon Valley explores this fast-paced, risky realm where fortunes and failures are made.
Great Fortune
by Daniel Okrent
Daniel Okrent weaves together themes of money, politics, art, architecture, business, and society to tell the story of the majestic suite of buildings that came to dominate the heart of midtown Manhattan and with it, for a time, the heart of the world.
Half of a Yellow Sun
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all.
Here We Are
by Oliver Jeffers
Insightful and gently humorous, Oliver Jeffers’ Here We Are is a heartfelt guide to life on Earth, created for his son but meant for all families. With wit and warmth, it explores our planet, space, and humanity, emphasizing kindness and tolerance. It's a must-have for parents seeking a meaningful, universal message.
How Democracy Dies
by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt
Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die--and how ours can be saved.
How the World Really Works
by Vaclav Smil
This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future.
Klara and the Sun
by Kazuo Ishiguro
In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
Life On Fire
by James Aladiran
In Life On Fire, James Aladiran lays bare the spiritual battles that still rage today. Through an engaging exposition of scripture, he reveals how we can destroy the stranglehold of seduction over our generation and help to usher in the greatest move of the Holy Spirit the world has ever seen.
Likeable Badass
by Alison Fragale
Likeable Badass is equal parts behavioral science and life hacks, weaving together rigorous research with actionable advice and impactful stories from a diverse array of women.
Measure What Matters
by John Doerr
In Measure What Matters, Doerr shares a broad range of first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies, with narrators including Bono and Bill Gates, to demonstrate the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations.
Nexus
by Yuval Noah Harari
Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.
The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah
The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance―a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
Now, Discover Your Strengths
by Donald O. Clifton and
Marcus Buckingham
The 20th anniversary edition of Now, Discover Your Strengths includes access to the updated Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0, offering personalized insights and resources tailored to your unique strengths.
Other People's Money
by John Kay
John Kay, with wide practical and academic experience in the world of finance, understands the operation of the financial sector better than most. He believes in good banks and effective asset managers, but good banks and effective asset managers are not what he sees.
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. Lee's complex and passionate characters—strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis—survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.
Patriot
by Alexei Navalny
Written with the passion, wit, candor, and bravery for which he was justly acclaimed, Patriot is Navalny’s final letter to the world: a moving account of his last years spent in the most brutal prison on earth; a reminder of why the principles of individual freedom matter so deeply; and a rousing call to continue the work for which he sacrificed his life.
The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go to—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.
Picasso’s War
by Hugh Eakin
A riveting story of how dueling ambitions and the power of prodigy made America the cultural center of the world—and Picasso the most famous artist alive—in the shadow of World War II.
The Power Broker
by Robert Caro
But The Power Broker is first and foremost a brilliant multidimensional portrait of a man—an extraordinary man who, denied power within the normal framework of the democratic process, stepped outside that framework to grasp power sufficient to shape a great city and to hold sway over the very texture of millions of lives.
The Psychology of Money
by Morgan Housel
In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life's most important topics.
Quiet
by Susan Cain
In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture.
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
by Edwin Lefèvre
Generations of readers have found that "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" has more to teach them about markets and people than years of experience. This is a timeless tale that will enrich your life--and your portfolio.
Rental House
by Weike Wang
Rental House is a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations.
The Rules of Fortune
by Danielle Prescod
A daughter’s investigation into her family history threatens to destroy their legacy in a gripping novel about power, money, and secrets.
Shantaram
by Gregory David Roberts
So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.
Shoe Dog
by Phil Knight
Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and
profitable brands.
Sunrise on the Reaping
by Suzanne Collins
During the brutal Fiftieth Hunger Games, known as the Quarter Quell, Haymitch Abernathy is forced from his home in District 12 and into a rigged arena. With double the tributes and deadly odds, he must fight to survive. But as the Capitol’s cruelty becomes clear, Haymitch’s battle turns into more than survival—it becomes a quiet act of rebellion.
Sweating Together
by David J. Miller
The ultimate front row look at the meteoric rise of Peloton, one of the hottest consumer and fitness brands in the world. In Sweating Together Miller brings readers directly into the center of the sweat soaked, adrenaline fueled, NYC phenomena that is Peloton and provides a first-hand account of the rise of one of the most important ventures of
tomorrow's economy.
Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy
by Edmund Morris
The definitive trilogy of biographies chronicling the storied life of the United States’ youngest President, Theodore Roosevelt—a consummate writer, soldier, naturalist, and politician—and his two world-changing terms
in office.
An Unfinished Love Story
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.
Unreasonable Hospitality
by Will Guidara
Today, every business can choose to be a hospitality business—and we can all transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences. Featuring sparkling stories of his journey through restaurants, with the industry’s most famous players like Daniel Boulud and Danny Meyer, Guidara urges us all to find the magic in what we do—for ourselves, the people we work with, and the people we serve.
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men.
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
by Daniel H. Pink
In When, Pink distills cutting-edge research and data on timing and synthesizes them into a fascinating, readable narrative packed with irresistible stories and practical takeaways that give readers compelling insights into how we can live richer, more engaged lives.
The Worlds I See
by Fei-Fei Li
The Worlds I See is a story of science in the first person, documenting one of the century’s defining moments from the inside. It provides a riveting story of a scientist at work and a thrillingly clear explanation of what artificial intelligence actually is―and how it came to be.
If you read any of the books on our Summer Reading Lists, tag us on social at #accelbookclub